Photographer Catches the ISS Flying Past the Moon

Amateur photographer Dylan O’Donnell captured the image above of the ISS transiting the moon on June 30th. This all happens in fraction of a second. To get an idea of how fast it happens and how hard its to freeze the subject and keep it in focus at that distance see the video below.

The CalSky website sends me alerts for potential fly overs for which I’ve been waiting a long time – about 12 months. I got one this week and this was adjusted by 15 seconds by the time of the “occultation”.

If you think that it might be a case of sitting there with your camera and a clock, with one hand on the shutter release, you’d be absolutely correct! The ISS only passed over the moon for 0.33 seconds as it shoots by quite quickly. Knowing the second it would pass I fired a “burst” mode of exposures then crossed my fingers and hoped it would show up in review – and it did!

Setup:
His setup included Canon 70D DSLR attached to the rear cell of his Celestron 9.25″ telescope (2300mm / f10).
The shutter speed was a quick 1/1650th of a second and ISO 800 in order to freeze the ISS in motion.

ISS can be seen in the upper right hand corner

Here is a close up so you can see the modules and the solar arrays captured fairly clearly!

The ISS only passed over the moon for 0.33 seconds

O’Donnell also took photos at different exposures of the moon either side of the ISS pass, and stitched those images together to expose the lunar surface in quite such intimate detail.